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Below is a family biography included in The Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois published by Biographical Publishing Co. in 1894.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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DR. W. J. HARRAL is a well-known and rising young physician now engaged in the practice of medicine in Elkville. He claims Tennessee as the state of his nativity, and in its schools he received a liberal education. Determining to take up the practice of medicine and make it his life work, he entered the college at Memphis, Tenn., and was graduated with honor from that institution with the degree of M. D.

Mr. Harral is a doctor of the old school. He began practice in 1883 and has continued it uninterruptedly up to the present time, in the early part of 1894. His ability to properly diagnose difficult cases soon brought him conspicuously before the public and made him well known to a wide territory. His practice from the beginning steadily increased and in a few years extended throughout the more densely populated districts of the western part of Middle Tennessee.

Shortly after beginning practice, as he was now starting out for himself, Dr. Harral chose as a companion and helpmate on life’s journey Miss Eugenia Thompson, a daughter of J. N. Thompson, a native of North Carolina. The parents of our subject, Baker and Rebecca (White) Harral, were also natives of North Carolina, and from that state some sixty years ago emigrated to Tennessee, where the father carried on agricultural pursuits. Unto Dr. and Mrs. Harral have been born two children, a son and daughter, Carl Rivers and Lonera.

For about ten years our subject continued to practice in his native state and then came to Illinois, locating in Elkville in 1893. He has for about a year been engaged in practice in this place and is already doing a successful business. He is a close student of his profession, and his skill and ability have won for him a high reputation, not only among his patrons, but also among his brother physicians. He is a wide-awake and enterprising young man, and this community finds in him a valued citizen who manifests a commendable interest in everything pertaining to its welfare and its advancement. He possesses many excellencies of character, and he and his estimable wife have gained many friends in this community.

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This family biography is one of 679 biographies included in The Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois published in 1894.  View the complete description here: The Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois

View additional Jackson County, Illinois family biographies here: Jackson County, Illinois Biographies

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